Sherlock Holmes discussion

There are so many of them, the pastiches, I mean. But most of them are kind of... disappointing if one's interested in the exploration of Holmes and Watson's relationship first and foremost. I personally cannot swallow stories where the authors use Holmes and Watson only as a springboard for their own original creations (Laurie R. King and similar) and the central relationship as introduced by Doyle becomes secondary or tertiary even.

So, I'm curious, what are your favorite Holmes and Watson centric pastiches? My personal favorite is The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz.

(I hope I posted it in the correct folder, dear mod!)

Yeah, this is a good place to put this topic. Although I believe we might already have a topic going for the pastiches?

I didn't find a discussion for pastiches, so I'm responding here. I've read many, usually if they are free or 99 cents on amazon, and also have found some in the library.
I agree that some authors seem to be on the fringe of creating a story that could have been penned by Doyle, but just say Holmes and I am reading it. (There was one where the main character was a relative of Holmes, but it was poorly written and not worth getting to the end. Won't even mention the title, it was so bad).
I've recently read M. Pepper Langlinais, Ian Charmock and Vincent Starrett.
Elsewhere in this group I saw a post with a link to a pastiche written by a fellow from India named Ashie. There were no reviews and so I bought it with intention of reviewing. And I hadn't found a free pastiche I haven't read. I was surprised that there were no comments to the post.
Mel, maybe we could rename this thread to Pastiches we love and don't?

Here's a link to a free on. It says you have to sign up to read, but scroll on the cover and it comes up.
http://pdf-directory.org/ebook.php?id...

Tough. I've only read about 5. Overall, I'd say League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, but most wouldn't consider it a pastiche as it's a graphic novel, not to mention it draws from numerous other literary characters. Novel-wise, probably The Last Sherlock Holmes story by Michael Dibdin because of the insane twist.

I am glad to find this discussion. I've only recently began exploring Holmesian pastiches. I've been curious about which ones were good and which a waste of time. And curious too about any discussion of them.

Well, it's not a pastiche, but I've written one as you can't have failed to notice; in it, Holmes and Watson are involved in the search for Jack the Ripper. I've written it as closely to ACD's style as I could get away with without losing most modern readers, using Police files (Some only recently released) and good old Artistic Licence. For those interested, it is available from MX Publishing or Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holme...

What would you say makes a pastiche good?

Does it have to be in 1st person, must it be in the Victorian era, should the setting ideally be London or partly elsewhere? Is it the banter or the deductions that set one example above another? Or is it the case that is important?

Personally, I love stories that explore the relationship between Holmes and Watson, that use the case to somehow showcase another side of their friendship. Like the latest few Big Finish audiobooks. Or Horowitz' The House of Silk. Or Gaiman's A Study in Emerald that opened up so many possibilities.